Saratov Oblast
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Cities
- — this large capital is the former center of Volga German culture and a major modern industrial city; has a fine art gallery and is home to much of the Russia's space program and was home to Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space
- — a mid-sized city known with impressive pretension as the Venice of the Volga for its many canals, contains the largest church of the Old Believers in Russia
- — a smaller city on the Khopyor River
- — a mid-sized city, which was formerly the capital of the Volga German Republic, is connected to Saratov by a 3 km bridge across the wide Volga River
Other destinations
- Khvalynsky National Park
Understand
Saratov Oblast was the center of Volga German culture, Germans who resettled in Russia in the 17th century enticed by offers of farmland, until WWII, when Stalin deported the Germans en masse to Siberia and Kazakhstan. Today, Saratov Oblast is a big center of industry along the Volga River.
Get in
Overnight trains from Moscow to Saratov take about 16 hours and are very affordable. Flights cost about twice as much (although they are still very reasonable) and will get you there in an hour and a half.